What does a pile of 60million unwanted Christmas presents look like? That’s exactly what Sendacow.org asked us to create for their new Christmas campaign which calls on on shoppers to give more meaningful gifts this Christmas.

Millions of pounds are wasted on unwanted gifts which will likely end up in the bin.

A new survey from YouGov has found that over half (57%) of Brits who celebrate Christmas receive at least one unwanted gift on average at this time of year, with 37% claiming they would be happy to receive a charitable donation as a present [1].

Nearly half (48%) admitted they struggle to find good presents for their family and friends and bath products topped the given list of the nation’s least loved Christmas presents.

Top unwanted Christmas gifts:

Bath products (38%)

A film/ boxset (18%)

Candles (16%)

Chocolate (16%)

Socks (14%)

The average person spends between £10 - £20 on unwanted Christmas presents for friends and loved ones. Instead they could buy:

Two chickens that can provide malnourished families with eggs to eat and sell (£16)

Garden tools for two families so they can grow their own vegetables (£14)

Fruit trees to help people establish their own orchards (£20)

With nearly half of shoppers admitting they struggle to find good presents for loved ones, charity gifts could be the way forward for a less wasteful and more meaningful Christmas this year.

[1] All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,182 adults, of which 1965 celebrate Christmas. Fieldwork was undertaken between 1st - 2nd November 2018. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).

[2] Based on findings of YouGov survey when extrapolated to the GB population of 50,644,094 million people, 90% of which celebrate Christmas and 94% of whom gave an opinion. The survey found that, on average, Brits who celebrate Christmas received 1.4 unwanted presents in an average Christmas – 59,982,864 overall.

[3] Based on findings of YouGov survey when extrapolated to the GB population of 50,644,094 million people, 90% of which celebrate Christmas and 97% of whom gave an opinion. The survey found that, on average, Brits who celebrate Christmas and give Christmas presents to friends spent £18.31 – £380,477,739 on a Christmas present for a friend. Calculations by Greenhouse PR.